A learning culture in development organizations is about creating an environment where people regularly reflect on experience, share what they’ve learned, and use that knowledge to improve future work. Rather than treating learning as a one-off task or a line item in a report, organizations with a strong learning culture make it part of how they operate every day.
- Promoting Knowledge Sharing in NGOs
- At the heart of a learning culture is promoting knowledge sharing in NGOs. This means creating regular spaces like team meetings, learning forums, or online platforms where staff can exchange insights from the field, discuss challenges, and highlight successes. When teams talk openly about what works and what doesn’t, everyone benefits.
- Lessons Learned Documentation and Reflective Practices
- Lessons learned documentation helps capture good ideas and mistakes alike. It’s not about assigning blame, but about understanding why something happened so others can avoid repeating it. Paired with reflective learning practices, such as after-action reviews or debrief sessions, organizations can turn everyday experiences into valuable insights.
- Adaptive Management and Feedback Culture
- A learning culture supports adaptive management in programs by encouraging teams to adjust strategies based on evidence, not assumptions. This goes hand-in-hand with building a feedback culture where staff, partners, and beneficiaries feel comfortable offering constructive input. Feedback becomes a tool for growth rather than criticism.
- Integrating Learning into Strategy and Continuous Improvement
- When learning is integrated into planning and decision-making, it becomes part of the organization’s DNA. Integrating learning into strategy ensures that insights shape future goals, budgets, and activities. This commitment fuels continuous improvement in projects, helping development organizations deliver better results, adapt to change, and remain effective in serving their communities.
List of recommended resources #
For a broad overview #
Cultivate a Learning Culture Within Your Organization
This article from the Center for Creative Leadership explains what a learning culture looks like and why it matters for organizations. It also outlines practical ways to nurture such a culture by encouraging knowledge sharing, supporting continuous learning, and ensuring fair access to opportunities for professional growth and development.
Driving a culture of learning in your organization
This talk by Linda Moss, director of Cloud Learning Services at Google Cloud, gives an overview of the learning principles at Google. Moss talks about the importance of creating a culture of learning in today’s rapidly changing world, giving examples of both formal and informal learning opportunities.
For in-depth understanding #
Creating Learning Cultures: Assessing the evidence
This report, published by the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, brings together the evidence on learning culture, beginning with a general introduction and then moving on to taking a systemic approach to learning as well as how organisations can embed learning in their workplace.
Learning Organizations: Developing Cultures for Tomorrow’s Workplace
This book by John Renesch and Sarita Chawla presents a collection of essays by 39 respected scholars and practitioners of the field. The collection of essays discusses the concept and theory of learning cultures as well as the infrastructure and their arenas of practice.
Case study #
This paper by Baek-Kyoo (Brian) Joo and Sunyoung Park explores how individual factors, such as goal orientation, and workplace factors, including an organization’s learning culture and developmental feedback, shape employees’ career satisfaction, commitment to the organization, and intentions to stay or leave.
Leadership and organizational learning culture: a systematic literature review
This paper by Lei Xie reviews existing research to examine how studies have assessed the connection between leadership and organizational learning culture, learning organizations, and organizational learning, with a focus on the measurement approaches used in the literature.
References #
8 Strategies to Build a Learning Culture in Your Organization
Why a learning culture is vital for success in your organisation in 2025
